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Monday, January 28, 2019

中華蕎麦うゑず (Uwezu in Yamanashi Prefecture)

中華蕎麦うゑず

Most ramen heads know about Tomita. So much so that in 2018 the documentary Ramen Heads debuted in arthouse cinemas around the world. I saw it the second week it was out in a theater with about a dozen people. Luckily, the reception on streaming services has been much better, and Tomita has become a household ramen name.

Uewza is part of the Tomita family. Located about an hour outside of Tokyo by car, it is a nice stop on the way to Nagano. If you aren't driving, this one probably isn't for you.

Or maybe it is. This is everything about tonkotsu gyokai that makes it oh so wonderful.

It looks badass, more of a pork sauce than a soup, but then you taste faint yuzu flavors and notice the balance of salty and umami. This is really amazing stuff.

The wait wasn't too bad. Just don't expect it to be empty. Even though this is in the middle of the sparsely populated countryside, said countryside's residents all have cars, and driving long distances is no problem.

The handmade noodles really are tops. While the ticket machine looks massive, the options are mostly based on how many grams of noodles you want. Small is 180 grams all the way up to the XL at 420 grams. To put it in perspective, the average ramen in soup is less than 150 grams.